Blizzard: March 10-11, 2009

Snowfall of March 10-11Courtesy the National Weather Service

A rapidly deepening area of low pressure moved from eastern Iowa to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan during the day on Tuesday, March 10. A mixed bag of rain and snow fell over southern and parts of central Minnesota, including the Twin Cities. Heavy snow fell over western and northern Minnesota, with blizzard conditions in the Red River Valley. These conditions forced the closure of highways, including I-94 from Jamestown, North Dakota to Fergus Falls. The highest snowfall reported was 18.8 inches at International Falls, but this includes a secondary storm that happened on March 9. Fargo picked up more unwanted precipitation with 10.1 inches of snow (.78 inches of melted precipitation) on March 9th and 10th.

As the winter storm swept into Ontario on March 11, northwest winds continued throughout the day with bitterly cold air entrenched across Minnesota. The coldest wind chill found on March 11 was -36 degrees at 7am in Bemidji. The Twin Cities had a minimum temperature of -4 on March 12. While not a record, the last time it dipped to zero or colder so late in a winter season in the Twin Cities was March 15, 1997. Embarrass and Babbitt reached -35 below zero on March 12, setting a new coldest record low for Minnesota for March 12. The old record was -34 set at Ada in 1896.

Listed below are local storm reports from the National Weather Service regarding the winter storm and blizzard of March 10-11.